Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky was right on Tuesday when he referred to the economic state of California as a potential “doomsday” situation.

From state government agencies to large corporations, small business to heads of households, most everyone is feeling the same hard financial pinch. Revenues are down, either from a lack of tax income, a lack of sales or a lost paycheck. Those who aren’t unemployed might have their pay cut to keep their jobs.

As such, Americans have gone, understandably, into siege mode. They are sticking to basics: Keeping the mortgage payments paid and food on the table.

But at the very same meeting as the sober talk about cutting services to poor people, the Board of Supervisors approved the funding of several non-essential projects when they ought to be guarding the treasury, our treasury, tightly.

One of those expenditures on Tuesday stood out particularly — $2 million for the construction of a TV production studio in the county administration building. The studio will allow the county to make TV shows about all the great services it has (or had, if the state’s budget picture doesn’t improve).

It’s a nice idea in theory. But such an expenditure is pure folly when the county administration is facing that financial doomsday the supervisor mentioned.

Nor is is just a possibility that financial troubles are ahead; it’s a certainty that the county’s revenue will face deep revenue shortfalls this year and next year. That could start as soon as next week if the state Legislature fails to come up with a revised budget to address a $42 billion shortfall. The immediate result would be a delay in payments of $105.6million to the county.

So county government is going to be hard-pressed just to cover the basics in the near future. And the four supervisors who approved this $2 million TV studio project (kudos for Gloria Molina for saying no) must start to re-evaluate their priorities.

The money for that TV studio is a drop in the bucket for the county budget. But reprogramming it — or at least saving it to help the sure-to-swell ranks of the poor in Los Angeles County — would send a powerful message to the those who are trying to avoid their personal financial doomsday.

And at a time like this, that kind of leadership is worth all the county infomercials in the world.

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